11
7. 6. 22, Monday, 8:46
Life after joining Room of Fear had fallen into a rhythmic beat.
Wake up at whatever time you like between 7 to 8, eat a breakfast that lasts until 10, laze around until lunch, after lunch go to the lounge, get taken to the Rooms, get out of the Rooms, review what you did, have tea, laze around again, have dinner, go to sleep, wake up at whatever time you like…you can see how finding the scrap of paper had changed things.
For instance why the seven were buzzing with excitement and an attack of fidgets.
Sitting still now required too much skill, as was putting food in one’s mouth. Emma was pushing everything her plate around in a circle, until she realized she was mixing her butter with a drop of spilled orange juice. She was, obviously, disgusted, but her mind kept insisting on replaying the PLAN, and her key role in it. Emma slipped her hand into her pocket and felt for the smooth, cold things in it as she conversed with Jordan and Queenie.
Lana was texting her parents and siblings, forking eggs into her mouth, drinking freshly pressed mango juice, tapping her foot, occasionally cracking her knuckles and constantly leaning over to whisper again and again the PLAN to Emma to the point Emma snapped back and rolled her eyes. Lana didn’t mind – or if she did, her dripping too much soy sauce on her eggs distracted her from it. Shauna helped her clean up, thankfully, otherwise it wouldn’t be presentable to have a large brown stain on her white t-shirt when filming.
Freddie had propped up a book in front of her, carefully not getting sticky fingers on it as she ate both a scone and fruits at the same time – since coming to Ashwood Mansion no one was stopping her from reading at meal times except possibly Lana. But then again, even as she inhaled the food, she wasn’t really reading. The PLAN was being reviewed in her mind, checking for any loose cannons or uncertain points.
Adonis was loudly talking with Alex, Glen and Ricky, like Julian was. Stuffing his mouth with breakfast took up one part of his brain, the conversation likewise, so the third part was using this time to scheme and run through the PLAN. He kept shifting around in his chair until he somehow ended up on Alex’s.
Julian was yelling at Glen for spilling his juice, but mostly he wasn’t paying attention to what he said which resulted in Glen asking him why the heck Julian was demanding for bank balances. Embarrassed, he quit shouting and went back to wondering if the PLAN would succeed, careful to watch his words when he spoke.
Denver and Leo were whispering together in hushed voices, hands reaching out to grab pancakes or whatever they had on their plates but not necessarily eating them (who would eat a spoon?). They were talking about the statistics of the PLAN actually working out, would Emma fail, would someone notice what they were doing as they were being filmed and all and would Denver please put back that knife?
No one noticed their anxiety, however, but they did notice-
Adonis stopped chewing suddenly. “Leith?”
Everyone looked up. Jordan’s jaw dropped. Kyler look baffled, loudly announcing ‘WHAT?’ to everyone. Emma gasped out ‘Oh my gosh’.
Leith was standing by the buffet table, holding a bowl of cereal. He appeared faintly puzzled at all this attention, based on his facial expression.
“Leith?” he said, bewilderment in his tone. “I’m not Leith-”
“Did you hit your head or something?” Tanya asked.
“Imposter,” Alex said.
Lana stage-whispered, “Bro’s got amnesia.”
“Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m not Leith,” Leith protested, sitting at the crews’ table.
“Sure you aren’t,” Freddie snorted. “Like the sky’s green.”
“Well then the sky is green ‘cause I’m not Leith. I’m Conrad.”
“Who?”
“Oh, that guy…”
“Oops.”
Conrad grinned. “Oh, right, you think I’m Leith ‘cause I look like him. Nah, I don’t.”
Everyone looked closer at him. True enough, Conrad was rather different in miniscule ways: his hair was longer and neater, grey eyes instead of blue and definitely slightly shorter by a fraction.
“Where is Leith?” Shauna asked. “I haven’t seen him for weeks. None of us have.”
“Like he disappeared or something,” Glen agreed.
“Were you impersonating him or something?” Leo asked.
“Eh,” Conrad said cagily. “He went off to crash at some of our friends’ place after…” Here he paused and glanced around. “After Gwenda got mad at him.”
“Why was she mad?” Emma pressed on. “He wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“Yeah, but what he was saying could’ve caused bad publicity and stuff,” Conrad pointed out, but he didn’t seem like he believed it himself.
“What the heck did he say?” Queenie asked Emma.
“Dunno,” Freddie said casually. “Gwenda just barged in and chewed him out.”
“Who knows?” he replied vaguely. He went on talking, but it was more of to himself. “Then again, Damon’s my dad so obviously Gwenda would want to protect his image.”
“What?”
“What’d he say?”
“Damon’s your dad?”
Conrad shrugged resignedly. “Yeah. A little family background information? Leith and I were actually adopted after Social Services deemed our mom too poor to care for us. Damon took us in and raised us, although I can’t exactly say he was a father figure. He married Gwenda about three years back, but it was a quiet affair so the press didn’t really know who she married and who our dad is. Long story, I know.”
“By the sound of it you guys aren’t really on good terms?”
“Does she hate you or something?”
“Wait- Damon is your father?”
“The whole evil stepmother thing is cliché.”
“Nah, I just meant that Damon pays for our education and everything, but he’s not THERE, if you know what I mean. Gwenda, I don’t know, no one can tell if she likes us or not. But anyone can see they like each other. Or at least their personalities complement each other.”
Conrad apparently decided to change the subject after that. “Hey, did you guys hear? Six unused Rooms got broken into yesterday.”
Oh heck no.
The Phobia Club exchanged panic glances. How did they find out? They had been so careful – wiping the card of fingerprints, locking the doors, pushing back everything they moved.
“Yeah, I heard,” Anne-Marie said, chewing a piece of toast. “The security card history showed someone entered the Rooms.”
No. how could they have forgotten about that?
Wait – how could you forget something you didn’t even know existed?
“Yeah, Damon says whoever it was is going to get one big shock.”
“What do you mean, shock?”
“A nasty one, I guarantee you, knowing Damon.”
***
If anyone re-watched the security camera feed from breakfast, they would’ve noticed that Lana, Freddie, Adonis, Julian, Denver and Leo all ate oats from the buffet.
But as there was no camera in the bathroom no one saw them mixing the stolen oats with mucky water and dumping it in the toilet bowl.
So when the maid passed by the toilet, she heard extremely loud, disgusting retching noises coming from it. Poking her head inside, she saw six very pale contestants who were leaning against various places and a bucketful of puke in the toilet bowl.
Apparently all six of them devoured bad oats and therefore received a stomach ache and a smelly mess in the bathroom.
And so they’re part in the show was cancelled while they were sent to their rooms by a very concerned housekeeper to recover.
“Kids these days – can’t tell if a food ain’t right,” Ms Cody muttered as she carefully shut the door, making sure not to wake them up.
The Phobia Club definitely could pursue a career in acting…
The boys snuck into the girls’ room after she left, sticking to the side of the walls like ninjas as to not be seen by cameras. Who knew how long it would be until someone walked into their bedroom and realized there was no one there?
Their plan had been simple but well-thought out. Since Emma was the only one in the Entomophobia Room and the rest couldn’t check her progress or help her (they were stripped of all devices before entering), they decided to just feign illness, stay in their rooms and watch the live video. Also, they provided Emma with a walkie-talkie that she managed to sneak in as the scanner didn’t detect toys.
Smart, right?
“Dumb thing won’t load,” Adonis shouted, shaking his laptop furiously.
“It’s just that one per cent!” Julian moaned.
Leo rolled his eyes. Lana sighed and took the laptop from them. “Just reload, idiots.”
Denver, from the door keeping watch, his voice muffled, said, “I can hear you from out here.”
Freddie happily ignored them all and went on translating the diary, humming and eating a snagged donut.
“Done,” Lana announced, and everyone except Denver leaned in closer to watch Emma’s episode. “I’m still kind of scared that someone is going to wonder how it’s such a coincidence why six of us are sick.”
“Not six of us,” Freddie corrected. “I bribed Alex to throw the vomit in his bathroom and stay out of the Room. Obviously he was happy not having to deal with rain today.”
“How much did you pay him?” Adonis asked interestedly.
“A few dollars. I’m such a persuasive dealer.”
“But why did we have to go through all this again?” Julian wondered.
“Because,” Lana said like she was explaining to a toddler. “If we went to our Rooms we wouldn’t be able to watch what Emma is doing. Plus, if one person had an walkie-talkie and everyone else too, it would look suspicious.”
“Everyone is so easy to fool here,” Julian said.
“Yeah,” Freddie agreed. “I stole your pencil case the other day and you believed me when I said I didn’t.”
“Wait what? THAT WAS YOU-”
“Shut up, I can’t hear,” Lana hushed them.
Emma was looking around and cringing at the insects. If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you wouldn’t notice how she kept glancing at exactly where the recording camera was. She lifted her shoulders, just a tiny bit.
Leo handed Lana the other walkie-talkie and she tapped a button. “Can you hear me?”
Emma’s chin jutted out a bid on screen as she pushed aside some books. A nod.
“Try the walls,” Lana suggested. “You could put keyholes in there.”
“That’s stupid,” Freddie argued. “How can you put locks in a wall?”
“We found some keys in walls,” Adonis pointed out.
Emma was already strolling toward the wall, doing a good job of looking like she knew what she was looking for and being scared. She pretended to be looking for clues as she walked around the entire Room in a zigzag way. Emma’s hand brushed the wall every time she passed by. She bend down. She strutted around twice. She checked the corners. She looked up, but there was nothing except – ugh – bugs.
She looked at the camera and shook her head. No, Emma was saying silently.
“Knew it,” Freddie murmured.
“Shut up,” Adonis said. “No one asked.”
“Try the furniture,” Lana said into the walkie-talkie. It crackled a bit.
Julian had walked out to take over watch guard duty and Denver hurried to the desk. On screen, they watched as Emma got to her knees and checked out the table and the armchair legs. She felt it, looking for all the world as if she was searching for clues.
Nothing, Emma implied as she looked at the camera.
“Where else can you hide a keyhole?” Denver said, frustrated. “She’s running out of time!”
“Paintings?” Freddie offered. “I think there was some movie or book where they opened up a painting by inserting a key. I think.”
Emma headed back to the painting. Feeling along the frame, she even lifted it up. She checked the other two picture frames too, but there was nothing there either. She walked away from it. Everyone in the bedroom groaned. Leo winced. It had been his idea, after all.
“Unless it’s the floor?” Adonis asked as he exchanged positions with Julian, closing the door.
Lana repeated it into the toy and Emma looked down, bending over. She screamed as a bug landed on her – she’d been doing that since the beginning. Briefly crossing their minds was the thought of how her throat wasn’t parched yet.
Emma darted to the other end. A way to escape the pesky thing and examine the floor. Everyone hoped the keys wouldn’t fall out, despite being put on a ring and hooked onto her jeans. She faced the camera one last time and blinked twice. No.
“There’s nothing in this Room,” Lana admitted finally, defeated. “It’s a dead end.”
“A red herring,” Adonis said angrily. Leo rolled over, covering his face.
“Could she – we – have missed something?” Denver said desperately. “There has to be something! Unless there’s another INSECT thingy we don’t know about!”
“There isn’t any!” Freddie yelled. “Why would any sane person have another buggy room or buggy décor or buggy– oh. OH.”
“What?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just realized something?”
“Holy smokes - it's not Emma's buggy room we should be searching...it's Queenie's."